1995-04-27_AgendaPacket - Laserfiche WebLink

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i Every county's water plan- whether it covers surface water, groundwater, or both- high{fights education as a key element of a successful water management program. In Dakota County, though, they've rlotte hover actually done something about it. In July 1994, the Dakota County Board of Commission- ers approved what is believed to be the first comprehensive countywide- water resources education plan in Minnesota. The board then followed that up by hiring an environmental education coordinator. "Once we finished the ground- water plan, and looked at all the surface water plans that the watershed management organi- zations (WMOs) had put to- gather, they had so many educational elements in com- mon that we felt like we needed to do something," said Eric Evanson, physical develop- ment planner for Dakota County. The "something° recommended by the county Office of Plan- ning was development of a water resources education plan. In July 1993, the county hired educational planning consultants Charlotte Shover and Tom Harren to carry forth the recommendation. Shover and Harren began their work by basically sifting through all the WMO plans and the county groundwater plan and pulling out the educational compo- nents, Shover said. Once they ident~f ed some general areas of concern, Shover and Harren began working with a Citizens Advi- sory Group which included representatives of local gov- ernments, the county, the media, the business commu- nity, the educational commu- nity, and others. The Citizens Advisory Group helped orga- nize the issues into ten basic priority areas in which educa- tion was needed: •coordination, educational materials and Geographic Information Services (GIS) training; •agricufture pesticide and fertilizer use; •aquifer and wellhead protection; •construction erosion control; •garden and lawn chemi- cal use; •household hazardous chemicals; •livestock and manure management; •on-site sewage treatment systems; •shoreland, wetland and wildlife habitat protection; •stomtwater management; and •water conservation. The Citizens Advisory Group was also instrumental inlaying out the strategies to imple- ment the plan, Shover said. One of the key strategies involved hiring an environ- mental education coordinator. After adopting the completed plan, the county posted the job opening and received 200 applications, ultimately hiring consultant. Shover for the coordinator's position. Dakota comp. 5 4 Charlotte Shover